Emissions Audit

Reducing my carbon footprint played a strong role in my decision to go electric, perhaps it is motivating you as well? Indeed, by removing the tail-pipe, EVs have far lower life-time emissions than equivalent gas cars even when accounting for the emissions related to their manufacture. So, lets find out if I spent my money wisely. We use an online carbon footprint calculator to check. If my results are to be believed, replacing our old Subaru Impreza with the 2015 Leaf saved 5t of CO2 equivalent emissions (going to the 2018 Leaf from the 2015 Leaf, not so much). Further, going vegan and trying not to fly, are easy opportunities to further reduce my household emissions.

You can’t manage what you can’t measure goes the old saying. So, lets do some measuring, I used an online carbon footprint calculator (https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx) I looked into my utility bills (I heat my house with natural gas from Embridge, and Toronto hydro supplies electricity), my Leaf’s mileage, and some rough budgeting numbers for other items, as summarized below:

Not bad, seems at 5.3t CO2 equivalent per person, Im doing a little better than the average EU resident (6.2 t), still above the global average (4.8 t) and way better than my fellow Canadians (15.1 t). Also, I ran the numbers for our old Subaru Impreza, seems that the 2015 Leaf has resulted in a 5 t reduction in our household emissions, not bad. Although going from a 2015 to the slightly heavier 2018 Leaf did add 0.02 t to our yearly carbon footprint.

Lets probe further and see where my household has some opportunities to further reduce our carbon footprint:

Seeing where your emissions are gives you a sense of what lifestyle changes would make the biggest impact. Should I put solar panels on my roof (0.2 t reduction)? Dump natural gas for a heat pump (1t)? Take the train on my next journey to Vancouver (3t)? Go Vegan (2t)?

Seems if I wanted to spend 10k on the house, the heat pump would result in bigger cut to our household emissions, putting us within spitting distance to the global average. If money is tight, going vegan would actually save money (source) and there is probably a health benefit too (source). Oh and by the way, Id save more emissions (2t vs 1t for the heatpump). Perhaps I should stop going through those bacon cheeseburgers.

Granted, these web calculators while useful, are far from perfect. For example, I could drive my EV to a buddy of mine that runs a farm and purchase some groceries direct (lets assume for the moment that my buddies farm is super green), or alternatively go to the big box grocery store. The calculator would not care, just the “total-dollar-amount” goes in there (see a recent CBC article). That misses the point, the goal here is not to estimate my carbon footprint down to the gram, rather, were doing this to start the search for those easy opportunities to drastically cut my carbon footprint. And seems Im walking away with a few ideas: Try the train next time, how about trying some vegan dishes in the kitchen, and consider a heat-pump. Lifestyle changes are hard, also, some of these do cost money. So, why not spend our time and money as effectively as we can, that usually means do not ignore the low hanging fruit.

Lets assume you have gone through your own audit, and are looking for some ideas to reduce your carbon footprint. Here are some additional ideas that might help you:

Spending a lot on heating bills? Seeing a lot of emissions in the house cattegory? Some easy ideas:

• Programmable thermostat. These are cheap (~70$ or so will get you a slightly newer version of the one I got, source). No need to heat or cool an empty house, it might even pay for itself through lower heating/cooling bills (source), there might even be a health benefit (source).
• Replace those drafty windows. Lots of heating/cooling effort is wasted out those drafty windows. Is it time for new ones? They might even pay for themselves (source).
• Attic insulation. Going outside in the cold without a hat is generally something I yell at my kids for. Seems the same is true for my house, and it might pay for itself (source).

Transport weighing down your carbon footprint? Some easy ideas:

• Get a bike. My family has just the one car (the Leaf), mostly as I am able to pedal to where I need to go work wise, while the kids walk to school. Perhaps you can too, apparently that alone could cut your transport CO2 emissions by a whopping 67 % (source). Plus its really good for you (source). And its cheap too, even a fancy e-bike might be a lot less than a used EV. Talk about a win-win-win.
• Transit? Apparently you might be happier taking the train to work rather than driving (source).
• All aboard! Consider taking the train on your next adventure. While an EV would do better, emissions wise, the train does better than the gas car and way better than the plane. And yes, help yourself to the wine-list or a pint while onboard (source).

Bothered by grocery store emissions? Here are a few ideas:

• Less beef. Beef production requires far more emissions than just about any other food type (source), plus those lentil taco’s can taste better than their beef counterparts.
• Home cooking is the best. Turns out cooking at home is both cheaper and produces less emissions (source), so go find your inner chef, and do yourself a favor by skimping on the salt and butter.

Tried your own carbon audit? Let us know how it went and leave a comment.